Kick off! "EU4Accountability" to improve social accountability in the Republic of Moldova

EU4Accountability will support civil society organisations in 10 districts from Republic of Moldova to influence local authorities through active participation in decision-making to better meets people’s needs. 60 NGOs will learn how to get involved in local budgeting and policy-making, which will then help to better reflect the needs of local communities and increase social accountability.

Civil society organisations from Cahul, Cimislia, Comrat, Falesti, Floresti, Glodeni, Rascani, Straseni, Stefan Voda and Telenesti districts, selected through an open call for participation, will be involved in a broader capacity building programme. This will enable them to learn how to:

implement their own public policy monitoring project,
strengthen mechanisms for social accountability and promotion of best practices,
facilitate peer learning,
exchange of experience and networking among local CSOs.

“Today we launch the new EU4Accountability action in 10 districts across the Republic of Moldova. The European Union is investing 1.5 million euro to strengthen social accountability of the local and central government in Moldova through targeted support to the civil society. This project will offer grants to civil society organisations to support their participation in policy dialogue and monitor the work of public authorities. This project will facilitate the citizens’ engagement in issues that matter to them and empower them to exercise influence beyond voting in elections, which in turn strengthen the democracy in Moldova.” statedJānis Mažeiks, the Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Moldova.

«EU4Accountability will offer grants to civil society organisations to support their participation in policy dialogue and monitor the work of public authorities» Jānis Mažeiks, the Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Moldova.

EU4Accountability aims to promote the concept of social accountability among citizens, members of civil society and representatives of local public authorities by explaining the benefits of social accountability in practice. The benefits are visible once civil society better understands its role — to scrutinise draft decisions published by local authorities and come up with proposals in public debates, to demand the allocation of the local budget to the real needs of citizens, and also to observe whether public services are of good quality and ask for improvements where something is perceived wrong or unfair.

Thus, the lessons learnt from the project will contribute to a participatory analysis of policies and enable civil and state institutions to engage in a political dialogue to improve the ways in which citizens can put forward proposals to the authorities, and create conditions for citizens’ initiatives and opinions to be heard and understood. The project is based on a grassroots approach thanks to the involvement of Moldovan public associations, which will assess the needs in the districts and provide training activities for their colleagues.

In November 2022, CSOs will come together to participate in activities focusing on specific topics of interest relating to good governance. Organisations selected to be part of the project will be supported through organisational development workshops and their expertise on social accountability issues will be enhanced.

Finally, the EU4Accountability project also foresees later to offer grants to CSOs in the 10 target districts of the project to implement social accountability processes at local level. In this way, as they will be able to participate more effectively in community planning, as CSOs will be better recognised as legitimate actors to engage in local democratic governance.

Find more by following the project’s Facebook page.

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The project is implemented by a consortium of three organisations: the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD), the European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA) and the Czech NGO People in Need (PIN) from 2022-2024.

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